Democracy 3: Electioneering review – Feel the Bern

Elections are an important part of any democracy. For many citizens who aren’t active in civil society, it’s the only time that they really exercise their democratic powers. In most games, including Democracy 3 until this DLC was released, you simply run your country and if you do a good job, you will be reelected. However, watching what goes on during the extended election cycles lately, this is not an accurate picture, which is something that Electioneering seeks to correct.

The Electioneering DLC for Democracy 3 isn’t active throughout your reign in the game. If you try to write your manifesto or give speeches too soon, you will be instructed to instead focus on running your country. If only that instruction were given to more politicians… Then again, this DLC addresses one of the major issues of the game – groups vote too closely along the lines of how policies have affected them. The poor will vote for you if your policies have targeted their problems, without any thoughts about your other policies or what your public image has shown. Electioneering finally deals with the concept of voter perception.

Once active, Electioneering gives players a variety of campaign-related activities. These can include giving speeches, making campaign promises and even pulling media stunts. This can boost the perception of you, the dear leader, in the electorate and improve your chances of getting re-elected. Struggling to convince the capitalists to vote for you? How about making a promise to improve the country’s GDP along with a speech saying how you hate unions? That should help. Need to prove you have the military chops to run the country? Land on an aircraft carrier!